There are many scientific, military and commercial applications where very high voltage and energy pulsed RF signals are required, the output power in some instances being in the megawatt to gigawatt range. Such pulse generators are for example useful in driving discharge lasers, including those used for laser radar, and in driving linear accelerators such as induction linacs. In the laser application for example, when DC electrodes are used to drive the laser head, such electrodes erode in the laser medium changing the breakdown characters of the laser, requiring replacement of the electrodes after only a few hundred hours of use and contaminating the gas of the laser head. Such problems can be overcome if an RF drive is employed, permitting the electrodes to be removed. However, the only RF sources heretofore available which are capable of generating the required power level have literally been as big as a house. Smaller, transistorized sources are unable to generate the required power. This has prevented such laser devices from being utilized in airborne, most shipboard and other portable applications and has substantially increased the cost and complexity of such devices.
A need therefore exists for an improved high energy pulsed RF signal source which source is small and light enough to be adapted for use in airborne and other portable applications and in particular which is far smaller, lighter, simpler and less expensive than existing high energy RF pulsed sources.